Ambulances were called 68 times in recent months to a child in care who is threatening to kill themselves “every single day”, a court has heard.
The child, whom the High Court has ordered be taken into secure care for their safety but cannot get a bed, is involved in a “dizzying array of serious and life-threatening incidents on a daily basis”, said Donal Ó Muircheartaigh, barrister for the child’s court-appointed advocate.
Social workers say the child’s “behaviours are so entrenched [they] need an urgent circuit break and the [advocate] absolutely agrees”, he said.
“What is even more stark is that the child... knows about the special care order at this stage and is very, very clear [they] want to go as soon as possible. [They] know [they] need containment to keep... safe.”
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The adolescent was one of seven children on the court’s “no beds list” on Monday – the highest number in three years. These are children in respect of whom Judge John Jordan has granted orders to Tusla, the child and family agency, that they be detained in secure care, known as special care, for their own safety but who cannot access beds.
Just 15 of the State’s 26 special care beds are open due to severe challenges recruiting and retaining staff.
Describing the situation as “outrageous” and an “affront to the court’s orders”, the judge said: “The risks in relation to each of the children are escalating ... while they are out and about, suffering harm and at risk and at danger.”
Among the issues facing the seven children are sexual exploitation, being groomed into criminality, taking drugs, distributing drugs and travelling in stolen cars. Many have experienced parental neglect, parental substance misuse, domestic violence and other traumas. In several cases their parents are in prison or dead.
The court also heard a child who should be in special care is the subject of an alleged sexual assault in their current Tusla placement. It heard that the District Court judge overseeing the child’s care wanted the High Court to ensure there was a “robust safety plan” due to the child’s risk of being sexually assaulted.
Jordan asked Paul Gunning, barrister for Tusla, if the agency was aware of this.
“That the District Court judge feels it necessary to bring it to my attention that a robust safety plan should be put in place it is illustration of the chaos in the system. Is there a safety plan?” he asked.
“Yes, there is judge,” Gunning replied.
The judge asked if there was “any sense of embarrassment or urgency” in the agency given that almost a third of the cases on his list concerned children he had ordered be placed in special care but could not get a bed.
“It is utterly intolerable there are physical beds available and almost one third of the children in the list today are not in special care, where there are physical beds.”
Gunning said Tusla hoped to open three additional beds this year and another three next year. It had opened its own “school” to bring social workers “up to the requisite level of training” to work in special care, he said.
Noting judgment was pending by Judge Emily Egan of the High Court in respect of contempt cases taken on behalf of children who had been unable to access special care beds, the judge said: “It is simply not good enough that there are beds there that can’t be used.”
